


Growing Old With You

by Goldy



Series: The Doctor and Rose have a dog named Horse [2]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Bittersweet, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-15
Updated: 2013-07-15
Packaged: 2017-12-20 05:14:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/883345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goldy/pseuds/Goldy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor discovers something horrifying. Rose mostly just wants to go back to bed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Growing Old With You

“Rose? Rose? Roooose.”

Rose flung an arm across her eyes and grunted.

“Rose—Rose, c’mon, I know you can hear me. _Rose_. Rose Rose RoseRose Roooose—”

“OKAY!” Rose yelled, pulling back her arm and opening her eyes. Two sets of plaintive brown eyes stared back at her. One belonged to her very large pet dog, Horse, and the other belonged to the Doctor.

It took her longer than she cared to admit to sort out which was which.

“Ah, good, you’re awake,” said the Doctor. “I’ve got to show you something.”

She gaped at him and then turned her head to look at the time. She gritted her teeth. “It’s 3am,” she said. “You woke me up at 3am?”

“Er,” said the Doctor. He rubbed the back of his neck and thought for a second. “Ooh, now, come on, Rose. You work for Torchwood. You know what aliens are like. They have no sense of propriety—they’ll just come in and invade at all hours of the day.”

Rose blinked and then gave a great yawn. “Are aliens invading?”

“Just one,” said the Doctor with a grin. “ _Anyway_ , since you’re already up—”

“Yeah, ‘cos you woke me—”

“—you won’t mind taking a look at something for me?”

“Yeah, I mind,” said Rose, voice rising. “It’s 3 _am_. Can’t it wait until morning?”

Horse whined softly at her tone and shifted over on the bed, laying his massive head down on her stomach and looking up at her with large, plaintive eyes. She sighed and scratched him behind the ears. He really wasn’t supposed to be up on the bed.

She was betting the Doctor was the one who kept letting that rule slide.

“It’ll only take a minute,” said the Doctor. He gave her a look that was eerily reminiscent of Horse’s. “Please?”

“Oh, all right,” said Rose. She nudged Horse away and then pulled back the covers, stumbling around for her slippers.

The Doctor bounded on ahead of her, Horse trotting happily behind him. Rose stifled a yawn as she shuffled after them. She followed the Doctor into the bathroom, where he had the light on and was staring into the mirror like it was a fascinating new specimen from outer space.

“Do you see it?” he said, worried eyes flying to hers in the mirror.

Rose yawned again. “See what?”

Horse nudged the Doctor in the leg, and he absently patted the dog’s head as he continued to frown into the mirror. “There,” he said, tilting his head to one side and gesturing at the top of his head, “right there.”

It was the middle of the night. Rose was tired, and cranky, and the Doctor had woken her up from what had been a really good dream. Frankly, she had no clue what she was supposed to be looking at and wasn’t sure she had the patience to puzzle her way through it.

“Oh my god, will you just tell me?”

The Doctor took a deep breath like he was summoning his strength. “Rose,” he said slowly and seriously, “I have a grey hair.”

His eyes met hers in the mirror, wide and horrified. Rose stared back at him in silence. Then she turned around and began to shuffle her way back to the bedroom. “I’m going back to sleep.”

****

Rose closed the front door behind her. The hallway was dark, but she could see a light on in the kitchen and living room. “I’m home!” she called.

There was an excited woof and then Horse skidded around the corner towards her. She bent down as he flew into her arms, tail wagging excitedly. She watched hopefully over the top of his head for the Doctor, but he didn’t appear.

He hadn’t been around that morning either, though someone had fed and walked Horse by the time she woke up. Rose had reckoned that he had been off sulking and would get over it, but now she wasn’t so sure. All right, so he was a little irritated with her. It didn’t mean he had to avoid her instead of talking to her like a normal person.

She found the Doctor in the living room, ensconced at the table with a stack of books piled around him. He had his specs on, and was hunched over a tiny paperback book.

It wasn’t exactly an unusual sight. What _was_ unusual was his choice of reading material. “Forty Things to Try Before Forty?’” Rose read aloud. “‘Growing Old Gracefully?’ ‘ _How to Keep her Satisfied in the Bedroom_?’” Rose gawked at him. “What the hell are you reading?”

The Doctor looked over the top of his book, frowning like he was trying to decide whether or not he was still angry with her. “I should think it’s obvious,” he finally settled on. He went back to his book, making a valiant effort to keep ignoring her.

For about three more seconds.

She could see the exact moment he gave in. His mouth opened like he was trying desperately to keep from telling her something, his jaw slackened, and then he gave a small twitch like he could no longer fight against it. “And I bought hair dye!” he burst out.

“You bought _hair dye_?”

The Doctor nodded. “I thought—I’ve never been ginger before, why can’t I be ginger? Or chestnut. Or purple. Did _you_ know hair dye came in purple?”

“What?” Rose said, beginning to feel slightly light-headed. She pulled out the nearest chair and then sat down in it. “You want to dye your hair purple?” She sat up straighter, suddenly unnerved for the first time since the grey hair incident the night before. “You’re changing your hair? Why would you want to change your hair?”

“And _then_ I stopped in at the library—”

“I guessed so, yeah.”

“Picked up a few books—”

“A _few_?”

“And how much did I learn? Nothing. Zilch. That’s how much. And I’ll tell you something else—you humans have gone through this for thousands of years and you _still_ haven’t come up with a cure for baldness.” The Doctor made a noise of disgust and firmly shut the book before tossing it on the table. He paused, and then said, “How would you feel if I got a tattoo?”

“A TATTOO?”

The Doctor looked a little disappointed. “All right, I’ll cross that off the list. It wasn’t going to be a very big tattoo. Just... a small one. Maybe of a bear. Or a blob. A green blob.”

The Doctor’s voice dimmed, growing more and more morose. Then he propped his chin up on his hand and stared glumly off into space. Rose felt her heart go out to him, suddenly feeling like the most rubbish girlfriend on the planet. She could plant herself between him and a Dalek without a second thought, but this—being here for him while he navigated the ins and outs of being human seemed so much harder for her.

She kept forgetting that this was all new to him.

She walked over to him, and then slipped her hand into his hair, leaning over the top of his head while her fingers combed through his hair. Underneath her the Doctor sighed and then relaxed, leaning back against her ministrations.

Rose smiled, her fingers gently scraping at his scalp. Then she saw it. A tiny grey hair, almost completely camouflaged under the rest of his hair.

“There it is.” She circled it with two fingers and then pulled. It easily slipped out and Rose released it, letting it waft to the floor and out of sight. “There, now. All gone.” Then she nudged him on the back of his shoulders. “And don’t you _dare_ even think about changing your hair, yeah? I love your hair.”

“Really?”

She could hear a smile in his voice. She circled around him until she was facing him, leaning back against the table. “Yeah,” she said. Then she sobered. “Doctor, what’s going on? Talk to me.”

He hesitated and then said, “Rose, all this? Going grey and having a bad back and voting Tory?”

She blinked at the last bit, but only said, “Yeah?”

“That’s what you’re supposed to do when you’re _young_ ,” he said. “Blimey, back then I even had a cane. The last thing I expected was to go through all this again. I’m almost 906, Rose. That’s far too old to go grey.”

Rose bit back a smile. “Oh, come on. It’s not that bad.” She paused. “Hang on. You used to carry a cane? When did you carry a cane?”

“That’s... beside the point.” He rubbed his temples. “I’ve never grown old like this before. I regenerated.” He took a breath. “I suppose... it all takes some getting used to.”

“It’s not exactly easy for us, too, you know.”

The Doctor raised his eyebrows, shooting her his how-could-you-even-begin-to-understand—my-deep-Time-Lord-pain-you-puny-human look.

Rose rolled her eyes. “Doctor,” she said, gesturing around her, “why d’you think we write all these books? Or sell all that hair dye? It’s not ‘cos we’ve got it all figured out.”

The Doctor leaned forward, eyes sweeping over the books like he was seeing them for the first time. His brow furrowed. “Ah,” he finally said.

“You know what, though?” Rose pushed him back in the chair and then slid onto his lap, arms circling his neck. “We’re going to make the most brilliant senior couple on Earth.”

His eyebrows shot up. “And why’s that?”

“Forget ageing gracefully,” she said, brushing her nose against his. “We’re still gonna be travelling the world, fighting aliens, and helping people. And hiding from my mum every Sunday at tea time.”

He grimaced. “Blimey, tea with Jackie when you’re 70, she’s 90, and I’m... well, still 900-something. How lovely.”

Rose snorted. “And I’ll tell you something else,” she said, shifting around on his lap.

His eyes fluttered shut and he made a noise that sounded like, “Mmm hmm?”

She dropped her voice. “We’ll still be shagging all the time. Probably in public places ‘cos we won’t have any sense of decency left and what are you gonna do? Arrest a couple of senior citizens for public shagging? I don’t think so.”

He made a noise that was somewhere between a moan and a laugh. Then he turned his head and pressed his lips against hers, hands sliding up her back.

He pulled away after a long kiss, looking deep in thought. “Well, I suppose it could be worse.”

“And if I’m _really_ lucky,” said Rose, “you’ll always be this charming.”

He grinned. “Rose Tyler,” he said seriously, “there is nothing I’d rather do than grow old with you.”

Rose blushed and then kissed him again. She didn’t doubt that he meant it.


End file.
